Choosing the Pause Over the Tug by Cathy Baker

Do you enjoy having to pause? Not me.

But I am excited to welcome back my friend, Cathy Baker, with thoughts on pauses good for our soul. Cathy is the author of sensory-based devotionals and wrote a guest blog for this community about her first e-book in the series for the beach. Read her post here, The Vacationing Soul: A Beach Devotional by Cathy Baker. And her second book, a devotional guide for the mountains, released last week.

By Cathy Baker

In the mornings, a small 1940’s ice cream parlor table greets me at the window that faces the mountains. In the foreground, a bluebird house is perched as pretty as you please on the trunk of a pear tree. With my Bible open, I read and then rest⏤both mind and soul.

The bluebird, without fail, catches my eye as I marvel at God’s artistic touch. His peacock-blue body boasts a flush of pink covering its breast. My flesh, it tugs like a 2-year-old clinging to the leg for ice cream, “Come on, let’s get the day started!” but my spirit, it wants to pause.

The struggle comes as no surprise. The pace of life desires to swallow us whole. But thanks be to God, we have the opportunity⏤the privilege⏤to pause, ponder nature’s beauty, and praise the Creator.

Pause

Creator #God, At every turn of our day, You frame and display Your #glory. Share on X

Creator God,

At every turn of our day, You frame and display Your glory
in small but meaningful ways for our pleasure and for
Your praise.

Forgive us when we trust the tug over the pause. 

Amen.

Ponder

To ponder is to consider one thing⏤to mull over, to meditate. Sitting outdoors, ponder God’s creation for a few moments. Look around. What do you see? I mean, really see? (We can look all day long but it’s when we take time to see the beauty surrounding us that our mind and soul mingle for God’s glory.) Is it the color of a bird, the mobility of an insect, or the shape of a leaf that catches your first glance?

Let’s linger here a little longer. Consider jotting down your thoughts in a journal, or sharing them aloud with God. When we pause and ponder to see nature with fresh eyes, blessings await.

Choosing the pause over the tug may also give us insight into spiritual truths.

In Job 12:7, we find Job responding to Zophar who had just unleashed his “wisdom” in Job’s general direction. This so-called wisdom was based on the premise that if Job were righteous he would not have experienced such loss. (How would you like Zophar for a friend?) Job’s full response is worth reading in its entirety but verses 7-10 provide a beautiful pause for today.

“But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.” Job 12:7-10

Look outside and ponder, for there are spiritual truths to be learned.

Praise

Heavenly Father,

You reminded Job of how Your wisdom is woven in, around, and through nature. Give us the ability to look beyond the obvious with a glance. Help us to see afresh Your creation as a gift to be pondered. We will give You all the glory, as we do not seek to worship creation, but rather, You, our Creator.

Amen.

Heavenly Father, Help us to see afresh Your #creation as a gift to be pondered. #blog Share on X

What sits outside your window today that gives you pause to sit and marvel at the beauty of God’s creation?

Bio: Cathy Baker is an award-winning writer and author of Pauses for the Vacationing Soul: A Sensory-Based Devotional Guide for the Beach as well as Pauses for the Vacationing Soul: A Sensory-Based Devotional Guide for the Mountains. As a twenty-five year veteran Bible instructor, she’s led hundreds of studies and workshops. She’s also contributed to numerous anthologies and publications, including Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Upper Room, and Focus on the Family’s Thriving Family. In addition, her poetry can be found in several popular anthologies. She and her husband, Brian, live in the foothills of the Carolinas where she one day hopes to have her very own Goldendoodle.

Connect with Cathy on:

Subscribe to Cathy’s blog and receive a free e-book, “Praying In Every Room of Your Home.”

Featured images of the mountains courtesy of Adobe Spark.

Post part of these link ups: Salt & Light, Crystal Twadell/Fresh Market Friday, Crystal Storms/Heart Encouragement, Suzanne Eller/Living Free, Lyli Dunbar/#FaithOnFire